Campus Reform Editor-in-Chief predicts end of DEI in schools due to 'blatant antisemitism'

Editor-in-Chief of the conservative outlet, Campus Reform, predicts that "Diversity, Equity and Inclusion" initiatives will soon die out at universities due to the recent awareness of blatant antisemitism. 

"I think we're now seeing the beginning of the end of DEI because Americans are finally awake to the actual problem and they are willing to put pressure on the universities," Zachary Marschall said on the "Just the News, No Noise" TV show. "There are alumni donors putting pressure on their own universities."

Bill Ackman, billionaire founder of Pershing Square Capital Management and a major donor to M.I.T. and other universities, is among many wealthy benefactors who have stopped funding schools they believe have gone too far with DEI and are too permissive of antisemitism. Ackman further called for Harvard to shut down its Office of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging (OEDIB), saying it is "a major contributing source of discriminatory practices on campus and highly damaging to the culture and sense of community at Harvard."

Antisemitism on college campuses made headlines in the past few months after the presidents of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Pennsylvania, and Harvard University testified before Congress about the topic. 

Their testimonies were described by lawmakers in both parties as "abhorrent" and "evasive and dismissive," and many called for them to resign. So far, Liz Magill and Claudine Gay have both resigned from their positions as presidents of Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania. Gay's resignation was in part due to a plagiarism scandal, and most notably, her comments before Congress where she was unable to say unequivocally that calls on campus for the genocide of Jews would violate the school’s conduct policy, and that it would "depend on the context."

"We're seeing what happens when Ivy League professors go and testify before Congress," Marschall said. "They end up getting sacked because they mishandle their campuses. So I think we're now seeing the start of accountability."

Marschall acknowledged that the ending of DEI would be a slow process, but he could see it happening eventually.

"I don't think it's gonna be a fast process," he said. "I don't think it's gonna be a linear process. But I do think we're finally seeing DEI and the unaccountable left finally start to lose their power in higher ed."

Marschall said that another reason he is hopeful about DEI losing its grip on college campuses is legislation calling for its end in states such as Utah and Florida.

According to NPR, Iowa, Utah, Florida, Texas and Oklahoma have enacted laws to ban DEI programs and efforts on college campuses.

"I am looking at a lot of legislation that's been coming out of Florida, Texas, Oklahoma, and Utah, in the last six months or so," Marschall said. "We're seeing a pushback against DEI programming and spending in public schools and those states."

"This is coming at us around the same time that we are seeing a new awareness and awakening among lawmakers and among the public that antisemitism is much more dangerous on campuses than anyone was willing to believe. It's what reveals the extent of the problem, which I think no one else was able to see or understand before."